The current study investigates the successful coping strategies Black football players currently use. Thematic categories include responses that exacerbated, habituated to, or mitigated the stereotype encounter. Empirical results elucidate various strategies employed to engage with stereotype threat.

Data was collected and analyzed from semi-structured interviews with 10 Black male football student-athletes employing grounded theory methodology to examine how they experience, are affected by, and respond to negative stereotypes.

In light of the impact of negative stereotypes on student-athlete performance, the purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a phenomenological, qualitative study that examined how Black male football players engage and cope with negative stereotypes at a predominantly White institution (PWI). When college students and professors subscribe to stereotypes that student-athletes enter college based solely on their physical abilities rather than their academic and intellectual capabilities, targets of the stereotypes may experience identity dissonance that exacerbates their decisions, behaviors, and ultimately their academic performance. Research has shown that the threat of negative stereotypes can have pernicious effects on the decision-making thoughts and behaviors for those who are targets (Steele, 2011).

Antonio lucio vivaldi